Here’s How Amazon Luna Will Get Around Apple’s Troublesome Game Streaming Rules

Between Amazon Luna, Google Stadia, Microsoft xCloud, Nvidia GeForce Now, and more, video game streaming is becoming more and more mainstream. While this segment of the industry grows, however, iOS users have been left to watch from the outside due to Apple’s strict rules – but Amazon Luna appears to have a solution.

On iOS platforms, streaming apps have either been massively compromised compared to their Android equivalents or absent altogether. This is due to Apple’s burdensome requirement that every game available through a streaming service be listed separately in the App Store, creating massive headaches for the companies making them and forcing the apps to hypothetically kick users out briefly in order to add titles to their library.

Amazon means to overcome this hassle by avoiding the App Store entirely. When it launches for iOS, Luna will function as a “progressive web app” (PWA). As explained by Engadget, PWAs are webpages that can open and function independently of a device’s web browsers. By running as a web app, Luna will circumvent Apple’s rules for streaming games, while also sacrificing the quality of a distinct app for the relative instability of the web.

And this workaround isn’t something Amazon cooked up itself behind Apple’s back. In fact, Apple recommended the option in its App Store rules section on streaming games.

“Of course, there is always the open Internet and web browser apps to reach all users outside of the App Store,” the section reads.

Amazon Luna was formally unveiled at the company’s device event on Thursday. It is currently accepting applications for the service’s early access period, during which time it will cost $5.99 a month. It is unknown when it will go fully public and what it will cost when it does.